Thomas Powell (botanist)

Rev Thomas Powell (1809–1887) was a British missionary sent by the London Missionary Society in 1844 to Samoa where he remained for 43 years. He was interested in botany, zoology and anthropology and was elected as a Fellow to the Linnean Society of London. During his time on the islands he recorded details of flora, fauna and the culture of the indigenous people.

Thomas Powell was born in Cookham Dean, Berkshire and attended Hackney Theological Academy from 1839. He was ordained May 29, 1844 and left London June 6, 1844 with his wife on the inaugural voyage of the missionary barque John Williams. They arrived on the Samoan island of Tutila January 31, 1845 on route to their posting at Savai’i. Powell had little knowledge of the language at this time so his missionary work was initially limited, but he did have medical knowledge and used this to treat those in need. In 1846 Powell was stationed at Pago Pago and in 1848 he went with John Geddie to Aneityum, in what is now Vanuatu, returning in 1849 in bad health to Samoa. He was suffering from malaria, but went against Geddie's wishes. He later wrote that a disagreement had occurred between the missionaries. On his return to Samoa, Powell was stationed at Tutuila where he remained for a large part of his time.

As a botanist, Powell had special interests in bryophytes, fungi and lichens. Herbarium specimens collected by him in the south Pacific region between 1860 and 1890 have been indexed by the Linnean Society of London and a list of the material was published by the society in 2011. He identified many of the Samoan names of plants and his paper on the subject, On Various Samoan Plants and Their Vernacular Names, was published in the 1868 Journal of Botany, British and Foreign, volume 6. Other papers forwarded to the Linnean Society by Powell included details of the poisons used by Samoan islanders to tip arrows and spears. He also submitted a paper on the formation of Atolls. The paper was read, but due to a critical review by Charles Darwin, it was not published.

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